Bicycle Touring 101: Paul Stockton's First Fully Loaded/Self-Contained bicycle touring adventure

I recently posted a request for first time touring stories. Paul Stockton responded to my request with the following story of his first fully loaded bicycle touring adventure.

Mark and Richard in front of the Montara lighthouse.
Click to enlarge.

I did my first fully loaded tour in 1995. At that point I had been cycling all my life, and cycling with the Toronto Bicycling Network for ten years.

I was also publishing comic books. The big comic book convention is in San Diego every year. My partner in the comic business lived in the Bay Area, so I would fly to San Francisco, spend a few days at his place, and then our whole crew would head down to the convention.

Every year we would use a different mode of transportation to get there. One year we flew. One year we rented a van. One year we took the train. So I suggested that next time we go by bicycle. My friend, who was the artist on one of our comics, and who had worked as a bicycle courier, thought this was a great idea. But since he was an artist, in the end he flaked out on me.

Having never done bicycle touring before, I was nervous about going it alone, so I starting looking around to see if there was a company that did a tour from San Francisco to San Diego. I found exactly what I wanted from Youth Hostels of America. They did a three week tour from San Fracisco to San Diego. They provided a leader, but it was fully loaded. No support vehicle. It was a combination of hostels and campgrounds, and the participants would share in the cooking duties.

It took me a long time to get my company to agree to let me have three weeks off in a row. But I finally got my vacation approved, and I signed up for the trip. Then, a month before the trip was to start, I got a call from YHA. They were cancelling the trip, because only three people had signed up.

I didn't know what to do at this point. Then, a couple of days later, I got a call from a guy named Mark. He had been one of the other guys to sign up. He had asked YHA for the numbers of the other people, to see if we wanted to do the trip ourselves. He said he had talked to the third guy, Richard. Richard had done loaded touring on YHA trips in France and Switzerland. Great, we thought, he can show us the ropes. So the three of us decided to go ahead with the trip.

Mark in Cannery Row in Monterey.
Click to enlarge.

By this point I had already been doing research. I had picked up Rob van der Plas' Bicycle Touring Manual. I had gotten the Adventure Cycling Maps. And I had gotten Kirkendall and Spring's Bicycling the Pacific Coast. Mark had gotten the itinerary from YHA, and they pretty much followed K&S.

A couple of days before my flight, I loaded up my bike for the first time, and rode it around the block. Then I packed it up.

I met up with Mark and Richard in the hostel in San Fransisco, and we headed down the coast.

The first day was a 25 mile ride to the Montara lighthouse, which had been turned in to a hostel. Despite the unsual heat wave that had hit San Fracisco, and the big climb up to Devil's Slide (which had just reopened a couple days before after being buried under a mudslide for five months), I discovered that bicycle touring isn't difficult. If you can ride a bike you can do loaded touring.

We averaged about 45 miles a day, staying in hostels the first few nights, before hitting our first campground in Monterey. I learned that you should learn how to use your stove at home before leaving on your tour, when I set the picnic table on fire.

Paul at the end of the trip at the Convention Centre in San Diego.
Click to enlarge.

Paul's tour inspired him to create a bicycle touring comic strip that you can see at http://www.roundtheworld.ca/mini.htm
Click to enlarge.

With the hiker/biker sites in the state parks, the west coast is a great place to do your first tour. And there are plenty of other cyclists doing the route, so you're always meeting new people.

We took our time, and checked out the sights along the way. Cannery Row, Hearst Castle, Big Sur, the mission in Santa Barbara. We saw wild life: elephant seals, dolphins, and killer squirrels.

When we got to LA, we stayed at my aunt and uncle's, and at the end of the tour, at my friend's in San Diego, which was a nice change of pace.

The biggest lesson I learned was that, if you arrange to to a tour with someone you've never met, be aware that you might not be compatible with them, On the other hand, they could turn out to be a great guy. But if you find them annoying, don't get upset; learn to laugh at their foibles.

If you would like to contribute your story about your first bicycle touring adventure please send me an email.